The ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’s Deleted Scenes Feature More Phasma, More Force Bonds, and More Fish Nuns

When Star Wars: The Last Jedi hits digital and home video later this month, we can expect practically a Lord of the Rings extended edition level of bonus features. There are going to be a total of 14 deleted scenes in the release, all of which feature deeper character relationships, fun lines, and plenty of other stuff that Rian Johnson just had to cut because of pacing.

Johnson broke down five of the 14 scenes for Entertainment Weekly, explaining with each one that it wasn’t cut out because it was a bad scene or didn’t work with the rest of the movie, but rather that he knew he needed to keep the momentum of ever scene going, and many of these just slowed it down.

I love each one of the scenes individually. I mean, every single one of them was not cut because it didn’t work. It was cut because the movie as a whole was better without it.

There was a scene where BB-8 plays a hologram recording of Rey’s emotional goodbye to Finn, that Johnson had in there to remind the viewers that they’re friends and are important to each other, but he ultimately deemed it unnecessary. He also had a scene of Force-bond mourning between Luke on his island and Leia on one of the Resistance ships after Luke learns of Han’s death, but, again, it was a great moment that simply took up too much space.

He also cut a fun scene while Finn and Rose are infiltrating Snoke’s flagship, in which Finn is recognized by a fellow Stormtrooper who congratulates him on his “promotion” and Finn learns that his defection was kept a secret. Johnson also cut a different version of the showdown between Finn and Phasma in which Finn reveals in front of the other Stormtroopers that Phasma gave away First Order intel to save her skin in The Force Awakens.

One of the most crucial scenes cut had to deal with Rey and Luke on Ahch-To, and Luke attempting to teach her of the hands-off politics of the Jedi while the Caretakers (those adorable fish nuns) are about to be overrun by a raiding party of another native island species. Luke tells her that in order to be a Jedi, she needs to stay out of the galaxy’s conflicts, but she disobeys, running down the beach to defend the Caretakers with a lightsaber in her hand. It ultimately colors her subsequent Force conversations with Kylo Ren a little differently, as, with this scene in the mix, she turns to him out of frustration with her tutor.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi hits digital on March 13 and Blu-ray on March 27, when you can see the other nine deleted scenes Johnson hasn’t yet revealed.